Behead the Prophet No Lord Shall Live

Behead the Prophet No Lord Shall Live

Behead The Prophet No Lord Shall Live was a hardcore punk band from the mid-'90s, who utilized the unbridled, apocalyptic intensity of the original "emo" sound, and in turn became highly influential in the queercore scene.
Joshua Plague (Ploeg) and Jon Quittner were both members of Olympia, Washington's Mukilteo Fairies and when that band broke up around 1994, they guickly gathered together a group of musicians from Olympia, Bellingham and Seattle to form Behead The Prophet, No Lord Shall Live. Read more on Last.fm

Behead The Prophet No Lord Shall Live was a hardcore punk band from the mid-'90s, who utilized the unbridled, apocalyptic intensity of the original "emo" sound, and in turn became highly influential in the queercore scene.
Joshua Plague (Ploeg) and Jon Quittner were both members of Olympia, Washington's Mukilteo Fairies and when that band broke up around 1994, they guickly gathered together a group of musicians from Olympia, Bellingham and Seattle to form Behead The Prophet, No Lord Shall Live. BTPNLSL's name is taken from a Deicide song, and was given to them by an obvious death metal enthusiast in a supermarket, claiming to be the younger brother of Deicide's lead singer. Members were Joshua, vocals and lyrics, Jon on bass,
Dave Harvey playing guitar, saxophone and feedback,
Jordan Rain on drums and
Michael Griffin on violin. Their sound was alternately described as crust punk, noise, queercore and by one critic, "spazzcore".

The term "screamo", although not in common usage at the time the band was around, has mistakenly been used posthumously to describe them. They released their first self titled, 8 song 7" single on Outpunk Records in 1995. Soon after this, they played the "Dirty Bird" queercore music festival in San Francisco where they made quite an impression and garnered many new fans. They then released their only full length CD/album I Am That Great And Fiery Force, a split release on Outpunk and Olympia based K Records.

They later released two more 7" records, one a split with Joe Preston's one man band Thrones, on the label Voice of the Sky where each band did their own rendition of Blue Öyster Cult songs. Their last 7" release, on the Sound Pollution label, entitled Making Craters Where Buildings Stood, includes "253-425", a song about the gentrification, technology boom and population increase that was rapidly taking place in Seattle in the late 90's when this single was released.
In the wake of their full length album, BTPNLSL did a six week tour of the U.S.A. BTPNLSL were well received in many places thick and thin across the country in the all-ages underground music scene. One show of the tour took place in Fargo, North Dakota between two massive days of flooding.

The young crowd attending this show were exhausted from sandbagging their town. Regardless of their fatigue from the necessary work of Fargo's repair, youth bounced off the walls that night in a joyous fervor, greatful for the inclusive thrashy sonic noise of BTPNLSL. Practicing the ethic in the name of the independent record label Kill Rock Stars, BTPNLSL loved and were well loved by their fans, due to the members friendly nature and approachable manner.
For a band who has so little recorded, their impact has been remarkable. One critic mentioned the influence of BTPNLSL he felt he could hear in The Locust's music; however the two bands actually played together so this is arguable.

There is no doubt about the influence Joshua Plague has had on the band Limp Wrist; their song "Ode", from the Complete Discography LP, is a tribute to Plague, along with Gary Floyd of The Dicks and Randy 'Biscuit' Turner of Big Boys, the hardcore punk queer heroes of the band. One of the most remarkable attributes of BTPNLSL is that, for a band that might scare the daylights out of you with their loud, noisy and thunderous music chalked with angsty political and spiritual lyrics, they ultimately had an extremely cathartic and positive effect on their audience. If you were in the audience at a BTPNLSL show, you were part of the act whether you liked it or not. If you were anywhere in the crowd you could at least expect to get sweaty if not get an eye or bootful of Joshua Plague's body flying relentlessly this way and that throughout their set.
After Behead the Prophet, No Lord Shall Live broke up, Joshua Plague formed the band Lords of Lightspeed and, after that, The Special Friend.

Dave Harvey and Jon Quittner joined Empire Of Man and, later, Tight Bros From Way Back When. Jordan Rain moved to Bellingham and joined the Reeks and the Wrecks. Michael Griffin (of Bellingham) continued to play in Noggin, the legendary Northwest improv-noise duo with Eric Ostrowski. Once Ploeg stopped performing with his previous bands, he began performing on his own, sometimes accompanied by Michael Griffin on violin, and has released several CDs, including Sanctuary Sounds.

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